Nigeria Police: 55 Dead in Islamist Attacks

Islamist militants seeking to impose a Taliban-style regime in northern Nigeria launched attacks Monday on police in three towns, expanding a two-day campaign of violence that has killed at least 55 people, police and witnesses said.

Trouble began Sunday when militants attacked a police station inthe northern city of Bauchi, leaving dozens dead in gunbattles withpolice. On Monday, militants launched a wave of attacks in threemore states, targeting the towns of Maiduguri, Damaturu, and Wudilin the predominantly Muslim North, police and residents said.

National police chief Ogbonnaya Onovo put the overall toll at 55dead at least - 50 militants and five police officers.

A journalist for the local Compass newspaper in Maiduguri,Olugbenga Akinbule, said he saw the bodies of about 100 Islamistmilitants shot in gunbattles with police in the town, where some ofthe worst violence occurred. Authorities did not confirm that toll.

Nigeria has been sporadically wracked by sectarian clashes since12 of the country's 36 states began adopting Islamic law, orShariah, in the north in 1999.

The radical sect known as Al-Sunna wal Jamma, or "Followers ofMohammed's Teachings" in Arabic, comprises mainly young Nigerianswho want to create a Taliban-style state based on a strictinterpretation of Shariah Law and the Quran. The group first cameto prominence with a wave of similar assaults on New Year's Eve2003. More attacks followed in late 2004, but little has been heardabout the sect since.

Residents in the North also refer to the Islamists as "BokoHaram," which means "Western education is sin" in the localHausa dialect. Onovo referred to the militants as Taliban, thoughthe group has no known links to Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

A local newspaper, Daily Trust, quoted the leader of the sect,Ustaz Mohammed Yusuf, as saying his followers are ready to die toensure the institution of a strict Islamic society.

"Democracy and (the) current system of education must bechanged, otherwise this war that is yet to start would continue forlong," he said.

Onovo vowed that police would arrest the group's leaders.

"This a fanatical organization that is anti-government,anti-people. We don't know what their aims are yet; we are out toidentify and arrest their leaders and also destroy their enclaves,wherever they are," Onovo said.

In Damaturu, capital of Yobe state, militants bombed a policestation, said national police spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu.

In Kano state's Wudil district, militants attacked anotherpolice station, according to local police spokesman Baba Muhammad.He said three militants were killed and two police officers werewounded in a shootout, and 34 militants were arrested.

In Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, militants battledpolice for hours. Onovo said he had sent "reinforcements to ourmen in Maiduguri to be able to cope with the situation." Akinbulesaid militants attacked a police headquarters, burned 10 housesinside the police compound, and freed prisoners from a stateprison.

Nnamdi K. Obasi, a Nigerian analyst with the InternationalCrisis Group, said trouble has been brewing for a while.

He said police in Maiduguri stopped some motorcycle-ridingmembers of a funeral procession carrying the body of a sect membertwo months ago because they were not wearing helmets. A fracasensued and police shot and killed 14 members of the group,prompting Yusuf to vow retaliation, Obasi said.

Police have been carrying out operations against the group. Lastweek in Biu, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of Maiduguri,they raided a militant compound and found homemade bombshells,explosive material, knives, machetes and guns, and arrested ninemilitants.

On Saturday, police in Maiduguri raided another house being usedby the militants after a homemade bomb exploded there accidentally,killing one militant and injuring another, according to Onovo, whosaid police "recovered many bags of explosives and different typesof dangerous weapons" from the house.

Obasi said the dead militant was a senior leader of the sect whogroup members believe state security forces assassinated. "Wordwent around their network that the police were carrying outpre-emptive searches, and this has led to the attacks sinceSunday," Obasi said by telephone from Kearney, Nebraska.

More than 10,000 Nigerians have died in sectarian violence sincecivilian leaders took over from a former military junta in 1999,though in recent years such violence has eased.

Nigeria's 140 million people are nearly evenly divided betweenChristians, who predominate in the south, and primarilynorthern-based Muslims. Shariah was implemented in a dozen northernstates after the country returned to civilian rule in 1999following years of oppressive military regimes.

Obasi said, however, that Shariah was never strictly imposed,and politicians had used the promise to do so to consolidate theirhold on power and attract funding from the Middle East.

The Islamist sect has been able to expand quietly since 2004,fueled by deepening poverty and lack of development.

"You find Islamic leaders coming forward to say, 'We've nevergained anything from Western models of governance or education, andunless we go back to the society prescribed by the Quran, nothingwill get better,"' Obasi said.

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